In article . com,
says...
I have little or no knowledge concerning the possible use of
higher-power lasers to cause significant or permanent eye
damage in military conflicts

In 1994, I was employed by a military sub-contractor as a Laser
Technician II. The clean room was divided in half. On one side was the
team that was building a YAG-based, non-eye-safe, laser range finder. I
was informed that it could only be used in areas where there weren't
likely to be people. The Geneva Convention prohibits the use of
non-eye-safe lasers on the battlefield, I was informed.

On the other side of the clean room, where I worked, was the team that
built the eye-safe, ErCr: Glass laser range finder. It could be used on
the battlefield with enemy forces present, because it was eye-safe. In
fact, the only reason for making that particular range finder was so
our military would not poke out the enemy's eyes with our lasers
whenever we took a distance reading (presumably before our side blew
the enemy's brains out with a canon).


The convention mentioned (Protocol IV) does not prohibit non-eye-safe
lasers on the battlefield. It does prohibit the building of specific
use laser devices to intentionally blind people or use an existing
device to intentionally blind people. It does not cover the accidental
blinding of personnel as a result of the legitimate use of a laser
device (ie rangefinding or target designation). In any event there are
only 79 countries that have ratified the protocol (introduced in 1998)
and to date the US is not one of them.